FALLFEST 2024

Time to register!

We always fill up quickly so don’t procrastinate and get left out! Registration closes as soon as we reach 100 registrants, no later than Sept. 30th.

FALLFEST Mining education and BBQ potluck time is here! More educational than ever! Fun times with great folks! Take home some gold and great memories.

Thursday October 3 through Sunday October 6, 2024

Four busy days of Mining, Prospecting and Learning: how to do it safely, responsibly and environmentally friendly. There will be a variety of prospecting and mining classes, including a hard rock drilling & blasting class!

Coming from Oklahoma! The Pros and Cons: Mike Pung (Mr. Gold Cube!) and Cash Best will be here sharing their expertise with fine gold recovery and detectors – Bring your questions and even your own concentrates- Try to stump the experts! They are now a Minelab Dealer, so you can pick up a new gold machine while at Fallfest.

We will have the delicious BBQ Potluck where PLP will bring the BBQ, sourdough bread and drinks, please bring a side dish or dessert. The Raffle is Saturday evening, and oh boy we’ve got some big prizes in the raffle including a Mad Mining 12v Puffer Drywasher, a vintage White’s Gold Detector, and of course, or should we say COARSE gold Nuggets, high dollar paydirt Gold Bags, silver bullion and much more!

Bring your surplus mining gear for the miner’s swap meet near the campfire area.

Gold Panning Championship will be underway during the weekend. The winner will be announced Saturday night!

Once again, we have a hard rock teaching/ demonstration presented by John Norman. We will have jack leg drills on hand. Our licensed blaster will be sharing their knowledge with you, including dummy samples you can examine. Come and learn how to get started hard rock mining or take your hard rock mining game to the next level!

Back by popular demand, we will be hosting the Historical Rand Mining District and Owl Museum tour by Historian Dan Stanton – No fee to participate, but you are encouraged to donate to the Owl Museum in Red Mountain when the tour stops there.

The Panning Contest was so much fun we are organizing another one. Will last year’s champion retain the title of “Fastest Panner in the West”? You know who you are…?

Also back is Marcia Betz with at least one special ladies craft event, maybe more! It is a favorite activity of the ladies! They made some cool items last year, several of which they donated to the raffle!

Saturday Adult detector hunt is still only $20 Details at check-in along with published schedule of events. Lots of 100+- year old coins like buffalo nickels and plenty of silver coins will be in this hunt along with real gold nuggets!

The FREE Kids metal detecting hunt is back! The kids really enjoy honing their metal detecting skills in the area prepared just for them. The smiles on their faces showed that they sure liked what they found!

We plan to have a group campfire every night in the main meeting area. We plan to have entertainment Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. PLP will be updating you on our activities such as Reclamation Dredging progress at the campfire gatherings. Please bring firewood to donate if you are able. Campfire mining talk with fiddle music, juggling and maybe a tall tale or two is always a great time!

Back by popular demand is retired from Disney’s Frontier Town, famous Fiddlin’ Farley and Brad Allen the World Class Juggler performing at the campfire in the evenings. Remember the knives and fire juggling? The bowling pins that light up in wild patterns and colors? Well come back and see the latest and coolest juggling, Brad’s skill is jaw dropping!

Thanks again to the Leppers, the Betz’, Susie, Roger Sims, Kim Holmes, Jeff, Laura, Thomas, Sean, Cory, Walt, Myrl, Dorothy and many, many others who have consistently volunteered to help make this a successful event. We couldn’t do it without you! We really appreciate you!

All attendees will get a new PLP membership, or for existing members we’ll extend your membership another year. Each paid attendee receives a dozen GRAND RAFFLE tickets towards our annual raffle, 6 tickets to the Saturday night raffle, common dig, all the classes and Sat. night BBQ/ potluck! We are gathering at a patented mining claim and sharing the gold (keep all you find!), food, fellowship, drywasher common dig, detector hunts, huge raffle (gold nuggets, mining equipment, silver and more!), plus we will be sharing more updates about the success PLP members have had with suction dredge reclamation.

Cost for all 4 days is only $75 per person, Families $75 plus $20 per person after the first one, kids under 12 are always FREE! Bring your kids and your kid’s friends, so they can learn to pan, drywash, PLUS the kids even have their own free metal detecting area!

SIGN UP here: https://www.publiclandsforthepeople.org/fallfest-2024-registration/

We will be gathering on a very large private patented mining claim in the historic Stringer Mining District just south of Randsburg, CA. The claim is a short distance from Highway 395, just south of Red Mountain. Turn west on Osdick Road and follow the 8.5”x11” PLP logo signs on wood stakes. The claim has limited RV access, but there is also an area nearby for RVs/ Motorhomes to park, and tent camping is allowed almost anywhere except the main area where we will be hosting the potluck dinner, panning contest area, Adult Metal detecting and group campfire.

The PLP registration table will be near the entrance to the claim which is less than 2 miles from the highway on paved and decent unpaved road. Our volunteers will be wearing bright yellow PLP Volunteer shirts and vests. Flag one of us down if you have any questions.

This historic gold and tungsten mining claim is still yielding gold in the washes, on the flat ground and even in the huge dirt piles. Rumor has it the piles were never processed, just sampled by the government contractor looking for tungsten during World War II. There have been nuggets found by attendees…they never get them all!

Bring your metal detector and drywasher and keep all the GOLD you find! It is a dry, high desert claim with ample area for dry camping. Be aware there is wildlife living out there, we are visiting their home (in the part of the desert that the claim is in, we’ve seen foxes, coyotes, snakes, lizards, jack rabbits, etc.). Do not dig near their homes.

We have clean porta-potties on site, extra drinking water and a group campfire every evening and Saturday is the potluck dinner and raffle. We exercise our First Amendment rights at Miner’s Church and Fellowship Sunday morning at 8:30 am to about 9:30 or 10.

For Potluck, please bring your own camp chairs and a folding table if you want to eat on a table, we have a limited number of tables and will be using ours for serving the Saturday potluck/ BBQ dinner and for hosting the big raffle. Please bring your favorite main course or side dish or dessert to share with the group! We typically need more side or main dishes and are heavy on desserts. PLP will be providing the main course of smoked BBQ and sourdough bread/butter/jam. It always works out.

After dinner we’ll once again update you on what PLP has been working on regarding the PROVEN ways you can now exercise your legal right to mine and perform dredge reclamation, not just CA but Oregon and soon in Washington too. We will have the new PLP DREDGE Cards on hand that spell out exactly what to do to legally participate in suction dredge reclamation in CA and Oregon. We will also be handing out our new and very useful PLP Forest Service green cards specifically designed to keep the Forest Service working within their actual jurisdiction and not overstepping onto your legal mining rights.

It can be hot and cold, but usually not too windy this time of year, so be prepared for any weather.

You can check in beginning at 9 am Thursday and stay until Sunday afternoon. Be sure and show off the gold you find, we all enjoy seeing that freshly dug up gold! Volunteers get to come in a day early and stay a day after Fallfest ends.

We want this to be fun and educational for experienced prospectors and newbies too. Once again, experts will be on hand to share tips and tricks to improve your prospecting and mining skills.

If you are new and need help learning how to set up and run your equipment, we’ve got you covered. Need gear? The mining community is always willing to share. We will have some loaner equipment available, and there will be experienced folks willing to help you, but the best option is to join the common dig (learn how a drywasher works and pan concentrates). Reach out to one of our volunteers on site. There will also be a panning station set up to use anytime.

Another HUGE shout out and thank you to all those who volunteered last year! You guys made it a successful outing! We are ever so grateful! If you would like to volunteer to help us with chores, please email or call us, we could use your help- we appreciate you! Many hands make for a fun outing for everyone.

A big THANK YOU to the Mining Journal for publishing the ‘PLP UPDATE’ article every month and our Grand Raffle ad. They will have complimentary magazines available at Fallfest. A huge thank you to the Mining Journal! www.icmj.com

Your PLP Board of Directors are looking forward to seeing our old friends and making new friends at our big gathering. Remember, we are still committed to “Exercising our granted Rights while we Make Mining, Reclamation and Multiple Use on Public Land Great Again!”

Registration closes as soon as it fills up, no later than September 30.